211. Gomu Gomu?
211. Gomu Gomu?
Perhaps
Maybe, just maybe
Theia had found herself thinking the two might be in that kind of relationship.
They were two people who had spent a great deal of time together, even back when they weren't openly showing that they were dating.
So if they were flaunting it so brazenly now, just how close must they have gotten before?
"Hah....Haaaaah......"
She might have expected it.
She might have had a premonition.
But still....
"....Mom?"
"..........."
It was still so hard.
The sight of her daughter perched atop a man's body.
And not only that, but without a trace of discomfort, wearing a smile far deeper and more profound than any she had ever shown her mother before──the face of a [Beloved Woman].
'Already... at that age...?'
She was dizzy.
It was hard to accept emotionally.
Her chest tightened with a stifling sensation, and a strangely restless feeling washed over her.
Just witnessing the scene unfolding before her eyes was enough to make her head spin.
"Uh....well, that is....."
Her daughter, Hestia, spoke.
"Wanna join, Mom?"
"............."
A single sentence that completely shattered any remaining sanity.
Perhaps that was exactly why.
'....I don't know anymore.'
She paradoxically felt her heart growing calm.
...
..
.
"I understand how both of you feel."
But no matter what, shouldn't you know to distinguish between time and place...?
A sudden passionate scene unfolding in a back alley.
And Theia, who had stumbled upon that scene with impeccably bad timing.
Ultimately, the act was cut short, they somehow tidied themselves up, and then entered a nearby cafe.
After that, well....
"And Chrono is a student cadet at the Academy. Despite that, something like that.... and even doing it outside..."
She received a scolding.
She saw Theia looking utterly dumbfounded.
"A blazing love shines regardless of time or place, you know?"
"....Haaaaaaah!"
Hestia was unfazed as ever.
Mm-hmm. This level of shamelessness was practically the default setting for a Greek goddess.
On top of that, she even added
"And Mom. You said to mind the time and place, but is love that minds the time and place really true love?"
"Hmm?"
"If anything, I think distinguishing time and place when loving someone is far too shallow and worldly toward each other."
"That's...."
"You love someone when they have lots of money and high status, but stop loving them when they have nothing? That kind of love is... just too selfish."
"....You're right."
'Whoa, that's not it.'
The defining trait of Greek myths was that they were a collection of genius gaslighters.
Theia, her train of thought cut off in an instant, was completely swept along by Hestia's will.
"If anything, I think it's precisely because it doesn't distinguish time or place that it's a purer love. What do you think, Mom?"
"I, still no matter what.... no matter... no matter how much you love each other...."
"If Chrono wished it, I could even wipe his butt for him at the central fountain."
"............."
A continuous stream of statements that were hard to call either pure or mad.
Startled. Though she wore a horrified expression, Theia's spirit was thoroughly dampened, and all she could do was mumble and tap her fingers uselessly.
"Still... Chrono is an Academy student cadet. It's not good to mess around with a student."
"He's a student cadet at the Academy, but he's an adult, so isn't it fine?"
"An adult? Wasn't Chrono a student?"
"A student, but an adult?"
".....Huh?"
"Huhhh?"
The two were on completely parallel tracks.
It was exactly like that common phrase, [All characters appearing in this work are adults].
Should I even call it an unspoken industry promise, where a character looks like a high school student no matter how you see them, but they insist they're an adult just to force a 19-Gold CG scene in?
"How did my daughter turn out like this...."
Ultimately, unable to find a proper rebuttal that didn't just go in circles, Theia was left only poking at the ice cubes in her glass with her straw.
"A woman changes when she's in love!"
"Isn't that changing a bit too much?"
All that came out in the end were complaints and sighs.
Theia looked at me with half-exhausted eyes and asked.
"Chrono... are you really sure about this?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure."
"....Hmm?"
A puzzled look.
But I couldn't lie.
'Honestly, I have absolutely no idea why I stopped her.'
I could have let her go if she wanted to leave.
But I couldn't let her go.
So I stopped her.
That was all there was to it.
".........."
Theia silently gazed at Hestia.
She was staring at her, as if asking, do you see that? Do you see this? How can you say such a thing after seeing this?
As she endlessly shot her a reproachful glare, Hestia shrugged her shoulders and answered.
"They say the one who loves first is the one who loses."
"...Haaaaaah."
Another sigh.
Just how many times had she sighed today?
Theia hung her head low and whispered quietly.
"Fine... if you two say you like it, who am I to do anything about it."
"Yay! I love you, Mom!"
"But."
She had no authority to stop the love between two people.
However, as a matter of parental duty, as a mother,
"It should be fine for me to check if Chrono truly cherishes Hestia, right?"
""........Pardon?""
*********************
The test content was simple.
Just go outside and have a date with Hestia.
And Theia planned to watch the whole process from the back.
'Doesn't that basically mean don't do anything?'
Still, considering what happened with Mars, this was merciful.
No one was suddenly rushing in with a drawn sword or calling a mob to gang up on me.
They were clearly ridiculous and strange conditions, but seeing them again made them feel angelic in comparison, which might mean I was slowly being Hellenized too.
"So... do you have any idea what you want to do?"
"Mm, impossible. No matter how I think about it, there's nothing I can show in front of my mom."
Like a motel,
Or a love hotel,
Or a room cafe,
Or a public restroom(?),
"I mean, there is something I actually want to do together with Mom, but still...."
"............."
...I didn't hear that.
I just kept walking forward, mindlessly.
As I kept going straight ahead like that....
"Oh? Chrono? And next to you is... Hestia?"
"....Huh?"
A person popped out from the street on the other side.
It was Star, wearing a sleeveless top for the summer day but still stubbornly sticking to her trademark hoodie.
I was both glad and flustered to see her after so long, and as I looked at her, Merk dashed over to Hestia, who was beside me.
"It's been a while, Hestia! Is this the first time I've seen you since the hospital?"
"You said you were Ter's girlfriend, right? Thank you for visiting me."
"Oh, it's only natural to visit since we're 'friends'!"
But...
"Anyway... Chrono, you knew Hestia?"
"It just happened."
"Hmm... 'Just happened' to know someone so well that you're linking arms?"
"I wasn't the one who linked them?"
Hestia was the one who grabbed and hugged my arm on her own.
It was never something I wanted.
"Liar."
"What?"
"If you wanted to loosen it, you could have done it ages ago."
"....Well..."
It gets a bit problematic if you put it that way so suddenly.
"Hmmmm. I see. So that's how it is? Hmmmm.... Hmm. Hmmmmmm....."
"...What are you looking at."
Merk kept staring at me with a deeply meaningful gaze.
Just as she was about to slowly approach me and I stepped back to dodge her──I spotted a blond pineapple head over in the distance that I absolutely could not ignore.
"You.... another interruption, is it?"
"....This has nothing to do with me?"
It was Merk, whom I hadn't seen in a long while, followed by Jupiter, the original Protagonist.
Maybe because it had been so long since I'd seen their faces, things were a bit fuzzy──Ah, right. Now that I think about it.
'Hestia said it before the regression, didn't she?'
That Jupiter had gone out with his girlfriend.
It seemed that girlfriend's identity was Merk.
But how could someone I hadn't seen in dozens of loops just happen to catch me perfectly in this run?
Just as I was marveling at the absurd string of coincidences, the Protagonist's eyes narrowed even further. He approached me and──
"Kyaa....?!"
"Whoa?"
"Take your hand off her, you piece of trash."
─He snatched Hestia right up and pulled her away.
Our linked arms were torn apart in an instant. Hestia was pulled over to Jupiter.
"After Yuno, Mars, Minerva, and now even my own family...!"
"Tch...."
Sizzle, cracklecracklecrackle...!
Yellow sparks flickered around Jupiter.
The divine energy was so intense it stung my skin, but it failed to make my heart pound any harder.
"Scared? Of the irresistible power of the heavens?"
"Huuuh...?"
What is this.
What is so... I mean, what is it.
Clearly, on the surface, it looked incredibly menacing, like he was about to kill me any second.
"...Is that your full power, by any chance?"
"What...?"
"I asked if that's you giving it your all."
"............"
Strangely, I didn't feel scared.
This guy, who had felt so overwhelmingly strong during the reassignment exam when we were stranded on the deserted island for the survival game that I thought I might actually die.
This guy, who still carried a certain presence even when we were struggling in the Succubus Queen's nest.
"Alright. So you want to die, is that it?"
Cracklecracklecracklecrackle!!!
A fiercely blooming bolt of lightning.
Jupiter, his entire body dyed in yellow lightning, charged at me at full speed without any kind of signal.
'He's fast.'
The distance closed in an instant with each step.
─CRASH!
"Hmph... a mere follower of an evil god like you dares to defy me──Hmm?"
In the blink of an eye, Jupiter's lightning lunged at me.
"You bastard. What sorcery did you use this time...!"
"It's not really sorcery..."
The lightning, the divine lightning, dispersed and vanished before it could even touch my body.
Meaninglessly. Worthlessly. The lightning weathered away and disappeared right on the spot.
"Fine. See if you can break through this too!"
Jupiter raised his divine tool and aimed it at me.
"[Thunder Spear─Astrape]"
The lightning of judgment from Zeus, descending from the heavens.
The Thunder Spear that bloomed from Jupiter's fingertips once again mercilessly carved through the terrain and rushed toward me.
And then.
─Pssshk!
".......How!"
The lightning burst apart and scattered the very moment it touched my hand.
"You cur...! You dare to challenge the lightning of a god and expect to survive!?"
"Challenge, that's a bit much...."
I hadn't done anything particularly amazing.
It was simply because I had become more sensitive to 'Time'.
"....Hah."
'I stopped the 'Time' of the 'electricity flowing on the surface of my body', turning it into an 'insulator' and a 'heat shield'.
It blocked the flow of electricity and the heat it generated.
The result was, just as I had seen moments ago.
─Psshk! Psh-sh-sh!
"Ugh....Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
"This actually works?"
He fired lightning like a madman, but every single attack crumbled away.
Ultimately, having used up every last bit of his remaining divine power, Jupiter collapsed. I looked at him and said.
"....Gomu Gomu...?"
Maybe, just maybe, I could execute the Six Styles right now.